do i write to a beat or write then find a beat

  • Thread starter Thread starter Esau
  • Start date Start date
Both.

Depends on how your inspiration comes.

For example, do ideas come into your head when you're out for a walk, or in the shower, or driving? If so, then you'll have to find a beat to fit the idea.

Or, do you hear a beat and then get an idea from it for a song/tune?

Delenda what genre, if your doing dance music then you might start with a beat, country you might start with a tune, etc.
 
Try both. Or a chord progression. Or a bass riff. Or a lyric. Or a musical atmosphere. Just try everything, and don't get stuck in one way of doing things.

(busy in here today isn't it?) ;)
 
For me I just start singing a new lyric scheme out of nowhere, it's quite annoying, when i have time write to I'm stumped, but if i'm working or cooking dinner or something like that stuff just comes to me form nowhere.

And normally my lyrics kinda find their own beat, sure that does not help much, but it's all I got
 
For me, I find it's sometimes a lot harder to write "top-down" than "bottom-up," meaning that if I have a good melody or guitar riff, I find it harder to flesh out the rest of the song and incorporate drums/bass/other instruments. If I'm having a creative block, sometimes I'll work from the bottom up, i.e. start with a good drum beat, add a bassline, and the rest just seems to come naturally. Like the others said, it depends on how your song ideas come to you -- most people think of a melody first, not a drum pattern (unless you're a drummer) -- there is no right or wrong way to do it of course. I just have found that starting with a drumbeat is a good way to jumpstart the brain, and maybe try things you normally wouldn't.
 
i gotta have a beat before i do any writing...whats hard is when you get the beat and the lyrics in your head at the same time......then i have to run home and make the beat and type out the lyrics before i lose it.
 
noodle

That's my new thing - I'm working on noodling, just letting stuff happen, and NOT JUDGING. That's always been the really hardest part for me. But I've observed that people who are good consistant songwriters are always at play at little bit when they are writing. So, do a bit of this, a bit of that, do sooooo much that you are gonna throw 95 percent of it away.

maybe not such helpful concrete advice, I know.
 
Layla Nahar said:
That's my new thing - I'm working on noodling, just letting stuff happen, and NOT JUDGING. That's always been the really hardest part for me. But I've observed that people who are good consistant songwriters are always at play at little bit when they are writing. So, do a bit of this, a bit of that, do sooooo much that you are gonna throw 95 percent of it away.

maybe not such helpful concrete advice, I know.
Click to expand...

I think that's wicked advice. there's another thread - there's another thread somewhere when aaron cheney talks about having a "creative" hat (where you write anything that comes out) and an "editing" hat where you cancel out the crap bits. I can't find the link to post, but I think it's under "Lyric Writing (the Caboose that couldn't)", or something. good advice, that . . . :)
 
i wear both hats at the same time.....that way i dont have to worry about asking myself "why the hell did i say that?" afterwards
 
That's certainly good advice when it comes to lyric writing.
Just do a brain dump onto paper (or word processor) get down all the ideas, phrases and lines and anything to do with the subject matter as they come into your head. Don't worry about rhymes at this stage...

Then when you have a couple of pages of stuff it's time to play. Much of it will be rubbish and can be discarded. It's like a sorting process whereby you're throwing out the poor lame lines and distilling the lyric down to only the best ones. I find writing on the PC is great for this, because I can re-arrange the order of lines and words very easily by cut and paste, spell check, and when i'm stuck even use the Thesaurus (sparingly) for suggestions, and edit out unnecessary 'padding' words.
 
distortedrumble said:
i wear both hats at the same time.....that way i dont have to worry about asking myself "why the hell did i say that?" afterwards
Click to expand...

I think an awful lot of us would like to be in your shoes - but we're not there yet.
 
I start with a chord progress, because it's much easier to get a tune, than work out a melody out of thin air.
I tried several times, starting with tunes without chord progress as backup, but I failed at last.
I've found that even without chord progress, without guitar or any other instrument, there still, at least, a bass progress line ringing in my head to help me find out my tune.
 
My second son who is now 6 wasn't even born when this thread began !

By the way, that was to a wicked beat.
 
Go on Soundclick and buy a beat and then rap over it ad lib.
 
Depends on what type of artist you are, If you are a REACTIVE artist you can come up with great melodies and verses by listening to a premade beat, if you are an Active artist you build the song from the ground up, it's hard to do when your singing because many of your band members will want their own creative input.
 
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